Abstract

BACKGROUND: HIV infection remains a public health challenge. This study assessed sexual practices among casual workers at the Cobblestone construction, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

METHODS: This was a quantitative cross-sectional study carried out among the labourers at the Cobblestone construction sites between October – December 2018. Multi-stage sampling was used to estimate the sample size. Demographic and sexual practice information were collected using a structured questionnaire. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to determine associations between variables; P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS: We recruited 627 labourers. Majority (82.2%) were aged between 18 and 38 years; average age at onset of sexual debut was 17.9 ±2.67 and 19.14 ±2.18 years among males and females respectively. Majority (68.5%) were married; exposure to pornography was 40.2% and 32% among male and female respectively. Lifetime multiple sexual practices were prevalent (59.9% and 50.0%) among males and females respectively; extramarital sex was prevalent (66.9%) among males but protected sex was relatively low (46.2%). Being employed significantly associated with likelihood of first exposure to alcohol (P =0.029), level of education, exposure to pornography and knowledge of symptoms of STIs significantly associated with multiple sexual practices.

CONCLUSION: Prevalence of risky sexual practices among the labourers were high which risks them to HIV infections. Innovative approaches to behavioural change are needed to reduce risks of HIV infection.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.